How one atheist sees life

History of Atheism

While wondering what a world would look like without religion I paused to think about what this world has looked like over time. This is a quick post so references can be found on Wikipedia or many other places if you want to look them up.

Shortly after the human species had workable written languages they began writing all manner of things, not simply using writing to enable more robust commerce. Hundreds of years before the Abrahamic texts were written down we had stories like that of Gilgamesh and philosophies from India, the far East, and middle East. By the time of the Christ of Christianity there were many texts about philosophy, law, morality… not simply bad love sonnets by young folk drunk on hormones. The spherical nature of the Earth itself was known at the time the Jews were writing down their histories. The world was not so isolated as some believers would have you believe. Writing and language was the high-tech of the day and historians the news reporters of the day. Wise and powerful people sought to own such texts as were available. The writings and wisdom of other cultures was known. The Jews did not live in a vacuum.

Interestingly, from the very beginning of written texts there were atheists, doubters, and those who boldly questioned believers as to where the proof of their claims is. The written history gives very strong evidence to believe that from the very first claim of the existence of gods the question of where is the proof has gone unanswered. That is to say that the extraordinary claim has never had any credible evidence, never mind extraordinary evidence.

The stance that logic and law and morality come from the god of Abraham is laughable. Such things were well discussed and used long before that particular false god ever got anything written down. That god failed to make sure that his chosen people were the first to have the very technology that is claimed to be proof of that god. The basic question asking for proof of the existence of gods has never been credibly addressed. It is the original and ONLY valid question to ask with regard to belief in gods: Where is the proof?

The statement that god(s) exist has actually always been a false statement. Wait, check that again… has always been a false statement. Yes, I said that because there has never been credible evidence in the contrary. There is so little room to think that gods exist that it’s unthinkably small and unlikely. There is nothing in logic nor philosophies of humans that says just because an idea can be expressed it must be true or even treated as possibly true. It is an unproven hypothesis which is not even based on observation. The idea that gods exist is no more true or likely than invisible fire breathing dragons that don’t leave foot prints.

Can an atheist know for certain that gods do not exist? In as much as no credible evidence has ever been produced to support such a claim, yes. The gods of religions are no more likely to exist than invisible pink unicorns and yet most religious groups are certain that the god of the others does not exist. There is no reason to believe that any god exists. There never has been. Thousands of years of history and not one credible argument or scrap of evidence. The first claims were false – gods do not exist. The Hindu will prove I am right about the Christian god, the Jew will prove I am right about the Hindu gods and so on. In this little Mexican stand-off the only winner is the non-believer. They can’t all be right, but they can all be wrong… and have been since the very first utterance that gods exist.

The history of atheism is older than the history of gods and religions. Without proof, belief is wrong and always has been.